Feral Instinct
by Aria Illusine
Summary: Magical modern SakuMulti AU, a strange spice from Tsunade's spice rack falls into Sakura's spiced jam cookies with metamorphic results which leaves the girl with a number of unexpected pets. Pairings inside rated T for future content...
1. Deadly Delicious

It's a new fic by Aria! Yeah, yeah, I really should finish my other ones first, and poor Gift's gone FOREVER without an update it feels like T-T But, I was reading My Pet Hot Guys by red-flower11 (who's a great writer and you should read her works, she's very creative) and this plot bunny just MAULED me! I swear I spent five straight minutes giggling like a fangirl on soda...it was embarrassing.

Summary: Modern magical AU, Sakura accidentally knocks a curious spice off her grandmother's spice rack into her cookie dough and creates a huge disaster when she accidentally changes several friends into...

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto aren't mine, and the idea for this fic was inspired by red-flower11's My Pet Hot Guys. The ramen shirt Sakura's wearing on the other hand, is my creation, featured from the fic Belonging ^^

Note: I halved the age differences between the characters so Kakashi's 24, Shisui's 22, Itachi's 20, and the other three are currently 17. And uh...wow I just gave away all the pairings...go me...-_- so much for secrecy. =P And yay! This is my 11th fic! I feel like I should celebrate somehow...the number 11 is one I've grown fond of lately...

Enjoy!

* * *

**Feral Instinct**

**Chapter 1: Deadly Delicious**

"I'm _sorry_, Naruto," Sakura huffed, rolling her eyes at the fifteenth apology she had uttered in the last ten minutes. "But I really can't go, I'm busy."

"But Saaaakura-chan!"

"I'm serious," the rose-haired girl reprimanded, glaring at teaspoon as she measured out cinnamon, letting it take the irritation she was feeling towards the blond so vocally whining to her over the phone. "I've got a tutoring session this afternoon and I can't miss it."

The seventeen-year-old on the other end of the cell line groaned, filling the connection with unhappy noises, finishing with a muttered, "Stupid Advanced Calculus class," that seemed to succinctly sum up his emotions on that particular subject.

"Namikaze Naruto, there is nothing stupid about multivariable calculus, so kindly keep your opinions to yourself," the viridian-eyed girl said tartly, raising her voice so that he could hear her over the whirring of her hand mixer. "Just because you'd rather take another history class with Kakashi-sensei, doesn't mean any class not with him is worthless."

"Yeah but…but…ski resort…"

Sakura sighed. Honestly, dealing with her childhood friend now was sometimes _exactly_ like dealing with him when they were five. "You're going with your family, and Kakashi-sensei, because your dad's having another one of his romantic episodes now that Grandma and Grandpa are gone on their silver wedding anniversary honeymoon and needs to have some time off, I'd only be intruding!"

"Sakura-chan, listen to yourself," the blond teased. "Tsunade-baachan and Jiraiya-jiichan are _our_ grandparents, which makes you family, so why not? You're about as close to my mom and dad as Kakashi-sensei is."

"We are not arguing about this, Naruto," Sakura laughed, amused that he was trying to use logic on her. "I have tutoring and that's final. Besides, you and I are only cousins because _my_ Tsunade-baachan married _your_ Jiraiya-jiichan, not because my mom's your dad's sister, therefore as I've already stated, I'd be intruding. And Kakashi-sensei's _your_ adoptive uncle, not mine."

Ignoring her blond cousin-by-marriage's unhappy whines, she sprinkled in a little more flour into the dough. "Anyway, I'm going to have to hang up now because it takes two hands to roll out cookie dough and I'm not coordinated enough to do that with a phone tucked in one ear, okay?"

"…Cookies?"

_Oh crap…_

Sakura laughed nervously, quickly wiping away the light sheen of sweat that had suddenly broken out across her forehead. "Uh yeah…I'm…I'm just…"

"Who are they for, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, his voice deceptively calm.

The emerald-eyed girl winced sheepishly, recognizing the signs. Naruto was falling into full-on possessive mode, over both her and the spiced jam cookies she was making, and it was in everyone's best interests to diffuse that particular bomb before any major damage happened. "N-no one, Naruto. I d-didn't feel like studying before my tutoring session so I…I thought I'd bake…" In desperation she threw out the best thing she could muster considering the circumstances. "I knew you liked spiced jam cookies so I'm baking them and I was going to run them by your place later this evening after you got home from the beach…"

It wasn't a complete lie; her choice to make spiced jam cookies _had_ been influenced by her best friend's love of them, though her original intention had been to bake a snack for tutoring later that afternoon.

Her words were greeted by a tense silence, then…

"Spiced jam cookies! I promise I'll have Otou-san stop by when we're on our way home!"

Well at least that was one bullet dodged. Naruto had even seemed to come to terms with leaving her behind for his family ski trip. _Go me_, Sakura thought with a grin. "I'll see you toni-," she jumped, knocking over a canister from the spice rack as a loud knock pounded on her door. "Crap, someone's at the door…" Forgetting to hang up on her best friend, she hurried through the hall to the door, not noticing as the spice she had knocked from its place sprinkled a heavy amount of a silvery, sugar-like powder into her cookie dough.

"Tutoring isn't for another half hour…" the viridian-eyed girl murmured, half to herself and half to the person on the other side of her door as unlocked it.

"Hey, Sakura!"

"Sakura."

The girl in question raised an eyebrow, staring skeptically at the two males standing on her doorstep as a wry little grin twisted her lips.

"Hey, Shisui, Sasuke-kun…this is a…_surprise_," she said, teasingly sarcastic as she leaned against the doorjamb. "Why are you two here?"

"I borrowed your graphing calculator for my statistics exam last week, so I was bringing it back," the older Uchiha told her, smiling winsomely as he imitated her posture and relaxed against the doorframe.

Sasuke flickered his eyes at his cousin, their depths flashing with an emotion that was gone too fast for Sakura to register, before replying, "I was picking up some of the movies I lent Naruto-dobe from his place, and ran into Shisui as I was leaving."

It wasn't actually an explanation of why Sasuke had felt it necessary to follow his cousin all the way to her place, strawberry-haired girl's house being several blocks away from Naruto's, but she let it slide. She'd learned from long years of dealing with the stoic Uchiha that it was better just to accept whatever explanation he offered without question, and later pry the actual reasons from Naruto, Sasuke's unlikely partner in crime, via interrogation.

"Come in," Sakura told them both, mentally sighing in resignation as she invited the two into the house. "I'm baking spiced jam cookies right now, which I actually need to get back to, but you guys can have a few as long as you leave before…"

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Shisui placated the girl with a grin, running a hand through his disheveled obsidian hair as he and the younger Uchiha turned away, down a hall leading to the house's parlor. "Itachi's always so uptight about being focused."

"There's nothing wrong with not needing you two distractions around when tutoring," the rose-haired girl muttered under her breath as she headed back to the kitchen, away from the late-autumn chill outdoors. She hefted her forgotten cell phone, absentmindedly re-tucking it to the side of her face as she talked to herself. "I guess I could shower upstairs while the cookies are baking…I'll just have to tell Shisui and Sasuke that I'll have Otou-san hunt them down if they try anything."

The hitherto forgotten seventeen-year-old on the other end of the phone yelped, startling the rosy-haired girl into dropping her phone with a muffled curse.

"You're going to take a shower while Sasuke and Shisui are over at your place?!" Taking a huge gulp of air that was audible even over the phone line, the blond began to ramble at the top of his lungs, his words punctured by erratic crashes as he hastily attempted to get ready to leave. "I am…going to be…there…in like ten minutes…DON'T SHOWER UNTIL I GET THERE!"

And with a click the line disconnected.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura didn't even bother attempting to call back and instead tucked the phone back into the pocket of her school uniform skirt as she headed into the kitchen to finish the cookies.

Five minutes later, a thunderous pounding on her front door, accompanied by a metallic scrabbling, announced the arrival of her cousin.

"Where are they?" he demanded, bounding into her kitchen like an orange whirlwind, the spare key to her house dangling from his hand.

In the process of sliding a tray of cookies into the oven, Sakura merely shrugged in response, waiting until it was in and the oven door closed before straightening to reply, "They were headed to the parlor the last time I saw them. Now that you're here I'm going to…go…shower," she finished, raising an eyebrow at the now-empty space beside her, the blond having departed the premises as soon as she'd informed him of the others' whereabouts.

"Fine then, Naruto," she muttered, injecting a touch of petulance into her tone. "I'll just go shower then."

Setting the timer to her cookies, she wiped her flour-powdered hands on a handy dishcloth and headed upstairs.

* * *

"Sakura-chan…are the cookies done yet?" Naruto whined as soon as Sakura reappeared downstairs, flushed from her shower.

"Almost," she told him, flashing the boys in the parlor a lopsided grin as she disappeared into the kitchen. "Almost…"

She dumped the trays of cookies onto a wide platter, setting several aside for Naruto to take with him for his parents and Kakashi. "Naruto and his stoma-," the front doorbell interrupted her with a loud, musical chime.

"Coming!" she called as she trotted to the front door.

A small grin blossomed across her elfin features as she took in both her tutor, and the familiar orange sedan idling in the driveway, utterly careless of how she looked in her acid-green pajama pants and the orange "Life's Always Better With RAMEN" t-shirt she'd gotten from Naruto for Christmas last year.

"Baking again, Sakura-san?" her tutor asked, his obsidian eyes amused as he regarded her under hooded lids, taking in a deep breath of the warm, spicy aroma emanating from the interior of her house. "I assume the others are here too."

"An accurate assumption," she teased, suppressing the usual twinge of irritation at the formal honorific. They'd known each other since childhood but since middle school he'd gone from calling her "Sakura" to the more polite "Sakura-san," and the change hadn't been wanted on her part. "They're in the parlor. I'm just going to run out and say hi to Minato-san…"

"See you inside," Itachi said, easily slipping past her into the familiar Haruno residence as Sakura breezed by to the car in the driveway, forcing himself not to pause as her fragrance enveloped him in a light sweetness on her way out, a scent that momentarily overpowered the aroma of her cookies.

On her part, Sakura merely nodded as she dashed out to greet her aunt and uncles as they exited Minato's vibrantly colored car.

"Hey there, Sakura-chan!" her blond uncle greeted, swinging her around like a child as he enveloped her in a bear hug that warmed her to the core in the cool autumn afternoon.

"Hi, Minato-san, Kushina-san, Kakashi-sensei!" the rose-haired seventeen-year-old laughed as she was finally put down. "Are you here for Naruto-kun?"

"He's not missing out on our ski trip," Naruto's mother said cheerily, pulling her niece-by-marriage into a less energetic hug than her husband, long sunset hair tickling the girl's cheeks. "We figured if he wasn't home he was going to be at your place."

"You didn't try checking Sasuke's place?" Sakura asked with surprise. "The two of them are nearly inseparable."

Kushina laughed and shook her head, running her fingers through the younger girl's vibrant tresses. It was truly amusing to her how the sharp, practically sassy, girl didn't realize how appealing she was to the males around her. Naruto's mother had even caught Kakashi stealing possibly covetous glances at the girl when he thought no one was looking.

"Well, please come inside," Sakura urged, "I baked spiced jam cookies."

"We'd love to Sakura-chan," the crimson-haired woman apologized, "but we really do need to go. Could you get Naruto-kun out for us? You know if we come in we'll never be able to leave."

The girl smiled beatifically, "Of course. I'll go get him." And with a last wave, she trotted back indoors.

"Naruto-kun! Your parents are here!"

"Already?! But I haven't had any cookies!"

Tossing rose-hued hair over her shoulder, the high school senior laughed carelessly, "I already have a plate for you and your family to take."

The orange and blond blur that collided with her crushed her ribs as he nuzzled the column of her throat until she was breathlessly giggling in his arms. "L-let go!" she yelped. "I c-can't get…the cookies!"

Immediately, she was released.

"Hey, baka. Quit slowing Sakura down, you're not the only one who wants cookies."

The pair turned, the girl in question raising a single eyebrow at the sight of all three Uchiha boys standing by the doorway to the parlor.

"Oi, Sasuke-teme, stay away from my cookies!" Naruto snapped as Sakura peeled his arms off her and slipped into the kitchen for the sought-after cookies. "Sakura-chan never expected you to come over and have any!"

The seventeen-year-old blond winced as the emerging girl smacked him upside the head.

"Itachi is my tutor. I was going to send some cookies to their house when he left," Sakura admonished as she plunked a plate of her spiced jam cookies into the blond's hands.

"But, Sakura-chan-," Naruto began, glaring as smirks of varying smugness flittered across the faces of the three Uchihas.

"But nothing," the girl told him. "Your parents and Kakashi-sensei are waiting, hurry up and go."

"Okay, okay," the blond caved, throwing his best friend a puppy dog look, "I'll go. But…" he added, a cunning glint in his cerulean eyes, "I'll see you as soon!" And with a chilling snicker, he laid a lightning fast kiss on her cheek. "See ya!"

"Geez, Naruto!"

The cheeky blond laughed carelessly, waving at the three very jealous dark-haired males standing behind the strawberry-haired girl as he disappeared into the sleek orange sedan. He had been stealing kisses like that from his Sakura-chan since the two of them had been little kids, a point he had over the more strictly raised Uchiha guys who were less prone to such open displays of affection.

"Stop snickering to yourself and hand over some of the cookies," Kakashi said, stealing a handful of the warm treats.

A shout of "Oi, Kakashi-sensei!" floated back to the Haruno residence as the car peeled out onto the street.

Sakura sighed to herself. "He still acts like such a kid sometimes," the girl mumbled, reentering her house. "The rest of the cookies are in the parlor, and after you and you have some," she said authoritatively, gesturing to Shisui and Sasuke, "you need to go so I can get help on my calculus homework." Gaining the requisite agreement she wanted, she let a cheery smile brighten her features. "Then I'll go get milk for us, help yourselves to the cookies."

* * *

The baked treat was sweet; with a tangy hint of orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and something else he couldn't quite name that complemented the raspberry-apricot jam deliciously, and strangely crispy. The obsidian-eyed male wondered if Sakura had added more sugar in the cookies than usual. They were crumblier and sweeter than usual, the taste accompanied by a slightly burnt flavor that usually occurred when the cookies were baked with too much sugar.

"These are really good, Sakura!" his cousin exclaimed, voicing his opinion with Naruto-like enthusiasm.

"Thanks, Shisui," his tutoring student replied, tucking a stray lock of rose-petal hair behind an ear as she reappeared with a jug of milk and some cups in one hand. "I added a little pumpkin pie spice to the mix this time."

"Shisui's right, Sakura," Sasuke added, taking another spiced treat. "They're very good. You should try one."

Sakura nodded agreeably as she, too, reached for a cookie, pushing the milk-filled tumblers to the others.

The cold, creamy liquid was refreshing after the sweet dryness of the spiced jam cookies, and Itachi thanked Sakura's absent parents for being sensible enough to buy whole milk instead of the watered-down fat-free and low-fat milk his parents were always getting.

Really, there was much about the emerald-eyed girl that was wonderfully beneficial, not merely limited to the fact that there was whole milk available at her house. As if magnified by the thoughts in his mind, Sakura seemed to blossom in his vision, her hair growing an even richer strawberry hue, growing taller until he had to look up into her sparkling, emerald eyes.

Wait, that wasn't right.

The cookie she had taken from the platter tumbled from her fingers, untasted.

"Sakura…you look…taller," Shisui said, voicing the thought that had suddenly blossomed in Itachi's own mind.

Her viridian eyes were wide, lips trembling as they moved soundlessly as she tried to speak. She was surprisingly pale, he noted, the normally rosy flush in her cheeks draining away to leave her looking almost unhealthily pallid. Her pink lips, the cherry blossom hue of her namesake, parted in a silent gasp as she took in a breath, and finally found her voice.

"I'm not bigger. You…" she swallowed hard, as if afraid to put voice to the words she was about to say. "You shrunk Shisui…you shrunk when you guys turned into cats."

* * *

Too cliche? ^^; I hope not. Yes, I did do the whole, turning people into kitties thing, but...hopefully you guys liked it? ^^

Please review and tell me what you think and whether or not I should continue on with this strange fic of magic and mayhem. The muse would appreciate her usual cookies ^^ thank you!


	2. Intuition and Intelligence

I know I haven't updated this story in FOREVER, so I finally got off my butt (thank you those of you who reviewed and reminded me that this story needs love too...) and finished writing a second chapter. This fic hasn't been abandoned or set on Hiatus status, it's still being loved and it's just my muse who chucks new plot bunnies at me all the time who keeps distracting me from writing this! Anyway! Second chapter is finished and hopefully it won't take me so many months to upload another chapter next time ^^

Unbeta'd so please forgive any glaring grammar and spelling mistakes. Uploading this in class and being super distracted while writing it ^^;

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but the spice classification is mine, as are the spiced jam cookies (which, I made them several months back, are actually pretty darn good XD)

* * *

**Chapter 2: Intuition and Intelligence**

Sakura stared, her heart thudding loud in her ears as she took it all in: three piles of boys' clothes, each topped with a dark-furred cat that stared back at her with distinctly feline disbelief.

"I…" a hand flew to her lips as she gasped in sudden speculation, the thought knocking the apology she had been formulating completely out of her mind. And without bothering to explain, she bolted out of her seat and sprinted to the kitchen, skidding to a halt by the spice rack.

The open canister lay on its side, the spilled, silvery powder staring back at her accusingly in a trail by the empty mixing bowl.

A chill swept down her spine as the label caught her eye, written in a language she only half understood.

_Oh…_crap. _That's Tsunade-baachan's…_

A rather pointed meow by her ankles alerted her of company, and she jumped back almost a foot, incongruously relieved that she was now wearing a pair of pajama pants as opposed to the skirt that went along with her school uniform.

"Sasuke!" she yelped, surprised that she could tell the three males apart regardless of the fact that they were no longer human.

"I think we deserve an explanation, Sakura-san," a crimson-eyed Itachi said calmly from his place curled up at her feet.

She nodded sadly, sighing as she sank to the kitchen floor. Like ordinary, non-enchanted cats, the three slid fluidly into her lap, offering wordless feline comfort that she accepted unquestioningly.

"The cookies…I accidentally…knocked some spice into the dough and they turned you into cats. They'll probably turn…everyone who eats them…into…cats…" Her viridian eyes widened in horror as a thought threw through her mind. "_Naruto!_"

She was on her feet instantly, spilling the felines from her lap as she snatched her cell phone off the counter and punched in her cousin's speed dial.

"Naruto…pick up, pick up, _please_ pick up!"

The phone clicked as the line connected.

"Sakura-chan?" Minato's voice crackled through the phone line, cheerful but a little bemused that she would call after having seen them ten minutes ago. "Naruto's a little busy but-,"

"Minato-san! Did anyone eat the cookies I made!"

=*~*~*=

Genuinely confused, Namikaze Minato blinked, glancing back through the rearview mirror at Naruto, whose mouth and hands were filled with spiced jam cookies, and Kakashi, who was halfway through his fourth one. Both had taken several of the sweets as soon as the orange sedan had peeled out of Sakura's driveway, and were making steady headway into the contents of the plate.

"I had one, and you know how Naruto is; he's had probably half the plate, and Kakashi's had a few…"

"You need to come back _right now!_" Sakura begged, too flustered to properly explain. "_Right now!_ Before something terrible happens and you end up in a huge accident or something!"

"Okay, okay, calm down, Sakura-chan," Minato soothed his niece-by-marriage gently, shooting his wife a worried glance. "I'm going to give the phone to Kushina. Can you tell her what the matter is? I'm going to try to get us back to your place as quickly as possible."

Satisfied by Sakura's soft agreement, the girl sounded almost in tears, he handed the phone over to his wife and caught Naruto and Kakashi's looks through the rearview mirror.

"Sakura-chan says we need to come back right away, so we're headed back. Hold on tight guys," Minato warned as he floored the gas.

"What's the problem, Sakura?" Kushina was saying into the cell phone as the car did a sharp U-turn and rocketed down familiar streets towards its destination.

"The cookies I made!" Sakura explained in an agonized tone, obviously upset. "I-I accidentally knocked one of Tsunade-baachan's…_special_ spices into the dough and i-it…_it turned Itachi, Sasuke, and Shisui into CATS!_"

Kushina blanched, throwing her husband, son, and adopted brother-in-law worried glances. Of the largely extended family that consisted of the Harunos, the Uchihas, and the Namikazes, there were very few individuals who were aware of the fact that Senju Tsunade was, in fact, a witch. Kushina had found out by accident a couple of years after the birth of Naruto. The only others who knew of Tsunade's otherwordly powers were Tsunade's two daughters, Shizune and Sakura's mother, Shiori; the woman's second husband, Jiraiya, Minato, and Tsunade's favorite grandchild, Sakura.

Tsunade was no sorceress who trifled with calling demons and dancing under the moon skyclad, but she was a powerful healer with a smaller knack for potions and cook-spells.

And her spice rack was, frankly, not to be trifled with.

"We're heading back as fast as we can," Kushina reassured the anxious seventeen-year-old. "And so far nothing's happened to them so…so…maybe it was something more than just the spice? Or perhaps the Uchiha boys are allergic?"

It would not have been the first time someone had a strange reaction to Tsunade's spices.

Unfortunately, unlike during those times, there was no Tsunade to sort things out.

Dearly wishing the older couple hadn't gone on their silver wedding anniversary honeymoon, Kushina made a number of final reassurances and flipped the phone closed.

"What's the verdict?" Minato asked as he pulled into the neighborhood they'd just left ten minutes ago.

Kushina gave him a grim look that made her husband swallow. "I hope there are phones at the beach hut in Tahiti your father rented for his honeymoon, because we may need to get in contact with them right away."

=*~*~*=

"Oh god what have I done?" Sakura moaned as she slid her phone closed and collapsed onto the couch.

She had been furiously pacing as she explained the situation to Naruto's mom over the phone and, now that the conversation was over, she felt boneless. Too tired to do more than curl up and fight the urge to beat her head against something hard, Sakura groaned in unhappiness and tried not to cry.

The pouncing of little paws as three lithe, springy bodies leapt onto the couch beside her broke her from her self-loathing reverie.

A warm body draped across her shoulders. "Don't be sad, Sakura-chan…we can work around this, can't we?"

"I hope so, Shisui," Sakura murmured, unconsciously pressing her cheek to his warm fur as he flowed off her shoulders to face her with large, dark eyes. "I really hope so…"

The slightly-smaller-than-his-two-relatives kitten, her best friend Sasuke, made a yowling noise.

"Itachi!" Sakura admonished, surprised when the normally stoic feline cuffed his younger brother about the ears. "You don't need to hit Sasuke-kun!"

"Perhaps you don't think so, Sakura-san," the crimson-eyed male replied smoothly, his tail twitching nonchalantly, "But you can't hear what he's saying." He cat-shrugged with an enviably graceful roll of one feline shoulder when Sakura's eyes filled with confusion. "He was swearing."

"Sasuke!"

Realizing how she'd used the same tone on his older brother just seconds ago, Sakura's lips trembled for only a second before she was laughing gaily, her concern over her friends forgotten for a moment.

When she was done, wiping the tears of mirth from her eyes, she reached out and scratched her former-tutor-turned-cat under his chin like she would any other pet. "I feel much better," she confided, "Thank you."

The cat pulled away, turning sharply to leap onto the couch's armrest and sit there out of her reach with his tail pulled around his paws. "I might look and feel like a cat, Sakura-san, but I'm still a human being on the inside," Itachi told her, his voice just a little cold.

Stung by the iciness in Itachi's voice, Sakura sat back…and flushed crimson as her tutor's words made sense to her. '_I just scratched under his chin! I'd NEVER have done that if he was human!_' her mind yelped as she stammered an apology. '_I just…that's not…gah!_' Her thoughts weren't particularly making sense, but she knew with obvious clarity that she wouldn't have been so affectionate had he been human.

"Enough about that, Sakura," Sasuke interrupted her mental confusion, tail flicking in displeasure as he glanced from his older brother to the girl who was his best friend. "I think you owe us an explanation. Saying you accidentally spilled spices that turned us into cats into your cookie dough doesn't explain much."

Sakura sighed.

"I knew it'd come to this one day," she muttered. "_Not_ that I knew you'd get turned into cats!" she hastily added when the three felines gave her identical looks of indignation. "But I knew something like this would go wrong eventually."

Steeling herself, Sakura blurted out the truth before she could let herself get too afraid to say anything. "Naruto's and my grandmother, Tsunade-baachan, is a witch."

The silence that followed was absolute, filled with the dumbfoundedness of three people-turned-cats who had never heard of this side of her family. Sakura tried hard not to fidget, her cheeks growing steadily hotter as she sat under their stares.

"Tsunade-baa…is a witch," Sasuke said at last, his dark eyes trained on the girl who blushed even darker than before. "You're certain."

"It's a little hard not to be certain, Sasuke-kun," Shisui chided from his cousin's right as his ears twitched in what Sakura was surprised to see as amusement. "We're _cats_, as you should recall. I doubt this is some weird parlor trick."

"I-I didn't mean for this to happen," Sakura apologized as she absentmindedly collected up her friends' clothes, leftover from when they'd transformed, to throw them all in a pile in the shadows beside a large armchair next to the couch. "I didn't know something like this would happen…and I'm sure it's possible to reverse this cat thing…"

"Is it?" Shisui wanted to know as his two cousins watched the crimson-cheeked girl with sharp interest. "This has happened before?"

"Not this particularly," Sakura admitted, "But magic isn't unheard of in my family, and there've been…accidents."

"Like this."

Sakura's flushed cheeks went pale again at Itachi's deadpan tone. "Like this," she agreed grimly, wishing the conversation over. "I'll call Tsunade-baachan as soon as I can and hopefully she can help me sort this out. I'll return you guys to human form."

"Sakura-san-,"

Whatever Itachi had meant to say was interrupted by the ringing of Sakura's doorbell and, relieved by the excuse, the rose-haired girl shot to her feet and rushed off to the door, glad to escape having to hear what he wanted to say.

She didn't notice the light in his feline eyes dim a little as he watched her go.

"Kushina-san," she greeted, a little more fervently than usual, when she pulled her front door open. A quick glance behind the vibrant redhead told her everything she needed to know. Naruto, Kakashi, and Minato were all still human. "Everyone's still alright!"

"We're fine, Sakura-chan," Minato reassured his niece as they let themselves into her house. "It looks like it might just be an Uchiha reaction."

"I hope so," Sakura muttered as she let herself be ushered to one side by Minato and Kushina, the only other people in the household to know exactly what had happened. "Though what with Kakashi-sensei's eye…I'm surprised he didn't have some kind of reaction."

The thought of Kakashi with a single, catlike crimson eye made a giggle bubble to her lips.

"Tell me how everything happened," Kushina urged the younger girl, pleased to see the bemused light in Sakura's eyes die as the girl focused on the task at hand.

"It was a little after Sasuke, Itachi, and Shisui started eating the cookies…"

=*~*~*=

"I wonder why Sakura-chan was so worked up," Naruto said aloud as he and Kakashi wandered into the living room. Sakura and his parents looked like they'd needed some space, and Naruto didn't really feel like intruding on them. "Probably something important."

"Aa," Kakashi agreed as he followed his adoptive nephew and current student into the Haruno residence's spacious parlor.

The remains of a plate of Sakura's spiced jam cookies and three glasses, still half-full of milk, sat on the coffee table. The room was empty.

Under the couch, the three Uchiha kits watched their friends' feet move around the room.

As soon as the front door had opened, Itachi had reminded his brother and cousin that they had no idea who knew of Tsunade's powers. So the three of them had opted for concealing themselves in case the situation got worse for Sakura if they happened to be spotted. Now, hiding under the couch, Naruto and Kakashi's conversation made it obvious that they'd done the right thing. The two appeared to have no idea of what the situation was.

Itachi narrowed his feline eyes at the two still-human males as Naruto complained about thirst and drank deeply from what had once been Itachi's own glass of milk. They had obviously escaped the fiasco unscathed, a reality that smarted a little. Itachi didn't enjoy being a cat, though he had to admit that there had been a few perks.

'_You really shouldn't have reminded Sakura that you were still a person in spite of the cat form,_' he chided himself, remembering the pleasure of Sakura's fingers in his fur.

"Come on, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto laughed, catching Itachi's attention once more. "I'm pretty sure teme and the others won't mind you drinking their milk. It's not like they're even here any more. It's really good. Sakura-chan always buys whole milk."

'_Milk_,' Itachi mused to himself, trying to get a better glimpse of Naruto and Kakashi. '_It _was_ really good…_'

Something nagged at his brain. It wasn't right…it couldn't have been just Sakura's cookies turning them into cats because Naruto and Kakashi hadn't become felines. And knowing them, Itachi was certain they'd both had some of Sakura's cookies already. Not even he and his brother and cousin had turned into cats right away.

'_But when we…_'

The fur on Itachi's back bristled as his eyes widened in shock, icy knowledge filling his brain.

Without thinking, the Uchiha shot out from under the couch into plain view as Kakashi took a long sip of milk from one of the glasses. "Don't drink that!"

A startled Kakashi dropped the large tumbler, choking on the swallow of creamy liquid in his mouth.

The sound of shattering glass brought the other three running.

=*~*~*=

Gaping like a landed fish, Sakura tried to wrap her mind around what she was seeing.

Her living room was filled with _five_ cats, and the identity of the last two, a silver tabby and a golden-furred short-hair, plain as day. A large splash of milk marred the hardwood floor, gleaming shards of glass everywhere.

"What…"

"It was the milk, Sakura-san," a mild voice said from near the coffee table.

Itachi, she could tell it was Itachi somehow though he looked almost identical to his sibling and cousin in sleek ebony fur, shook glittering glass dust from his fur as he picked his way around the mess to her feet, skirting a bewildered Kakashi who struggled out from under his shirt with as much dignity as he could manage. "Milk seems to be a catalyst. Naruto and Kakashi-san were fine until they drank milk, just like Shisui, Sasuke, and I did earlier. It would explain why they remained unchanged until now."

"A catalyst," Kushina groaned, gingerly stepping around broken glass to pick up her kitten of a son. "We should have guessed. A lot of Tsunade-san's stuff has worked that way before."

Sakura nodded mutely as she and Minato helped to collect the other felines and shuttle them into a different room until everyone was gathered, away from milk and broken glass, in a small study off to one side of the kitchen.

Minato sank into the chair at the desk while Sakura took up half the loveseat by the study's filled bookshelf, the five cats beside her, and Kushina took the plush armchair.

"I'm so-,"

"It's okay, Sakura-chan," Kushina told her, waving away the girl's apology before she could finish it. "This is hardly your fault, so don't apologize and let's try to think of a way out of this instead, ne?" The older woman smiled at Sakura's look of heartfelt thanks.

"So what do you know about this spice?" she asked.

"Tsunade-baachan hadn't reached that one yet," Sakura said sadly, wishing she had something more to tell her aunt. "I only know the ten basic spices on the rack, and three of the sigma-level spices. We haven't gotten to delta-level…"

"Okay, so that's not an option," Kushina said, glancing from her niece to the surprisingly silent golden kitten that was her son.

"Perhaps we should call your grandparents…"

Sakura gulped down nervousness. It was probably the last thing she'd wanted, but it wasn't as if they had a choice, did they? Tsunade was the only one who could unravel this mess, so calling was really their only option.

"I'll go get the phone."

She was back with a cordless and the phone number Tsunade had left her in case she wanted to contact her grandparents in very little time, but she wished someone would say something while she punched in the numbers and pressed the phone to her ear.

_Ring…ring…ri-click._

"Hello, you have reached Tahiti Paradise Resorts. We apologize but we are unable to connect your call at this time. Please call back during our regular business hours-,"

Sakura didn't bother to listen further, gritting her teeth as she hung up with a defeated shrug as the others glanced to her. "They can't connect my call, we'll have to call back later."

Kushina winced. "I guess there's nothing for it then," she sighed, trying to smile for Sakura's sake. "We have to keep everyone here until the spice's effect wears off or Tsunade-san can arrange to take the spell off." She nodded to the five cats following the conversation with a sharp, palpable interest. "They'll have to stay here.

* * *

Sorry about how this chapter wasn't big on interaction between Sakura and her boys, but don't worry, they'll definitely insert themselves into her life by the very next chapter!!

Again, forgive me for not uploading sooner! Please feed the muse reviews and cookies so that she will motivate me to write for this story more often!! Reviews do affect my writing ^^ they needle me into getting off my lazy butt (figuratively speaking anyway; I'm always sitting when I write...XP).

Thanks for sticking with this story!

Aria, out.


	3. Cat Compulsions

Here's chapter 3 of Feral Instinct ^^ It's a bit of a rush job, but I hope you guys like it anyway ^^; I could probably have done better...but this might very well be my last update for a few weeks because of midterms coming up, so I wanted to get in as much as possible. New chapters are up for both Imperial and Hiwaya as well, so please do read them if you feel so inclined ^^ Plus, is anyone else's Traffic graphs acting weird? I'll get notifications saying people have reviewed my fics, but traffic says I've got no hits since two days ago XD Oh well...

Unbeta'd, wish I had a chance to get that done but the busy is keeping me from the writing.

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I totally wouldn't have to go to school, so I wouldn't have midterms, so I'd have more time to write, but then I wouldn't because I'd own Naruto and wouldn't have to...that makes no sense. Suffice to say I don't own Naruto XD

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**Chapter 3: Cat Compulsions**

"Are you sure, Sakura-chan? You don't have to do this."

Sakura shook her head, giving Kushina the most cheerful smile she could manage, under the circumstances. "Tsunade-baachan always used to lecture me that spells I didn't know the composition of had to be monitored very carefully. They can't go out like that, and if you and Minato-san stay here with us…" The rose-haired girl shook her head again. "Minato-san might be affected by their magical fields and be induced into turning feline too. I really will be fine."

"Yeah, Okaa-san," Naruto piped from around her ankles, making Sakura jump, "We'll take good care of Sakura-chan. I promise!"

"It's not you that I'm worried about," Kushina muttered under her breath, not realizing that she could be clearly heard by five pairs of inquisitive feline ears. But she let Sakura persuade her to take Minato home, leaving the rose-haired seventeen-year-old alone with five, shape-changed males.

Sakura shut the front door with a sigh. The events of the day had drained her, making thoughts of advanced calculus and homework fly right out of her head. It was a relief to remember that she still had all of the week-long break to figure out this cat thing before school started up again and it became a serious problem. Not that it wasn't _already_ a very serious problem…

A cold nose pressed to her bare ankle.

"Naruto!" she yelped, nearly catapulting into a side table as she narrowly avoided stepping on Sasuke's tail, said tail's owner hissing feline epithets as he scrambled out of the way.

The golden kitten whipped his head out from under the hem of her pant leg, tail flicking. "Sorry," he apologized with a roguish little grin. "It was kitty instinct. Cheer up, Sakura-chan."

Frowning, Sakura scooped up the gold-furred feline, ignoring Naruto's disgruntled meow at such offhanded treatment. "What do you mean, kitty instinct?" she asked, holding her friend up so she could look straight into his cerulean eyes.

Dangling in midair, Naruto attempted to shrug. "No clue," he told her cheerfully. "My brain thinks it wants to do things," his blue eyes lit up, "and I do them!" He leaned in and licked the tip of Sakura's nose.

Below, a concerted series of feline yowls gave light to the others' displeasure at Naruto's forwardness.

Naruto's ears went back, his tail flicking a little faster as his eyes darted from Sakura to the four cats on the floor and back again.

"So…you have impulse control issues?" Sakura guessed as she absentmindedly wiped the end of her nose with a sleeve. "And you act like real cats sometimes." She wasn't used to owning or caring for felines, but she'd known people who had, and she was familiar with at least the basics of cat behavior. Naruto was obviously not happy about something.

That was interesting. She had known Naruto for her entire life, but she'd never seen such clear indicators of his feelings before. Glancing down at the other cats, she made a contemplative hum in the back of her throat. It would be something she might want to monitor as she attempted to figure out a way to reverse the effects of her cookies. In the meantime…

Sakura kissed Naruto's furry head with genuine affection, right between his ears. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Naruto-kun. It's just a lot to take in all at once."

"I like it when you call me Naruto-kun," the blond kitten piped, grinning a familiar grin. "But you almost never do."

"I wanted to save it for special occasions," Sakura admitted, a little surprised by the forthrightness of Naruto's remarks, "but if you like it so much, I'll try to call you that more often." A smile crinkled at the corners of Sakura's eyes as Naruto began to purr under her hands.

"So…now what?" Sakura wondered aloud. "We can't seem to contact Tsunade-baachan yet, Kushina-san is going to deal with your parents," she motioned vaguely towards the three Uchiha members on the floor, "and I've set the cookies and spice aside for later when I can really get a good look at them…"

The loud rumbling of her own stomach cut through her mutterings, and Sakura blushed and laughed. "I guess maybe we ought to think about food? What do you guys eat?"

=*~*~*=

"Sakura, we are not cats," Sasuke told her a while later, looking distastefully down at the bowl of plain, tuna-out-of-the-can Sakura had set on the floor for them. "We look like cats, and maybe we behave a little like them…but I'm not going to eat any of this tuna."

"I guess you're right," the rose-haired girl admitted from where she sat, cross-legged on the kitchen's linoleum floor with a lap full of cats.

She had discovered rather quickly that, in spite of what Itachi had said earlier about not wanting to be treated like a cat, Shisui, Naruto, and even Sasuke on occasion, had no real qualms about being petted by her. And so, having never had a real pet before, Sakura had allowed herself the liberty of filling her lap with felines, petting their soft, downy fur with obvious delight.

"Normal food would probably work fine, Sakura," Shisui told her from where he was curled up on her knee, his head pressed under her palm with eyes half-lidded from the almost soporific effect of her hand sliding against his fur. "Sandwiches."

"Pizza," Naruto meowed.

"Steak."

Sakura blinked in surprise to glance at Kakashi. He and Itachi had been rather silent during the majority of the events of that afternoon, but here he was offering information in a way that seemed rather unlike him. "Steak, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked, a little confused. "Aren't you always telling us the importance of a balanced diet? Especially to Naruto-kun…"

Kakashi's tail flicked with irritation; he couldn't seem to stop himself from doing that, but hearing the contrast of honorifics had been getting on his nerves and, unlike when he was human, his emotions were getting more easily translated into actions. He could only hope that Sakura – dear, sweet, but in some ways not the most observational, Sakura – didn't pick up on why his tail kept twitching. She referred to everyone else by their given names, but he alone was 'Kakashi-sensei'.

"Steak might be a balanced diet to a cat," he replied with a serene smile, he was glad he could still manage those as a feline, "and some things that are harmless to humans are often poisonous to cats. Better to stick to some kind of meat."

"Good point, sensei," Sakura said thoughtfully, getting up out of the blanket of cats that had lain on her lap, to meows of discontent that Kakashi secretly found himself rather pleased about. "But I don't have steak. I suppose chicken will do?"

"Chicken is fine, Sakura," Shisui said with a feline smile that irked Kakashi to no end.

"Then chicken it is. Grilling them on a frying pan should be fine…" Still talking to herself, Sakura wandered over to her refrigerator to pull out a packet of raw chicken and find spices in the much less dangerous spice cabinet instead of the much more dangerous spice rack.

Down on the floor, the five kittens coiled around one another, arguing in a feline language Sakura couldn't understand. If she could have, she would have been much more disturbed.

The conversation itself wouldn't have translated well into human speech.

But it was hard to argue with the territorial pheromones that were all over Sakura from the various feline males; it was also just as obvious that she favored none of them above the others.

"If you can't-,"

A quiet snarl.

"Sakura is-,"

At the sound of her name, Sakura turned, a bottle of canola oil in one hand. "Huh?"

The innocence that they practically exuded was so suspicious that Sakura had to laugh. "I'm not even going to ask. Please don't tear up the kitchen floor…" a little smile twitched her lips, "or you don't get any dinner."

"No fair!" Naruto yelped, his golden fur suddenly bristling out like a short-furred cloud. "You can't starve us!"

Dark and silver-furred bodies scrambled and leapt onto the counter beside the stove.

"Naru-dobe's right, Sakura," Sasuke said, insinuating himself between her and the raw chicken. "You can't starve us."

"Okay, okay, it was just a joke," Sakura replied with a small grin. She picked up a piece of chicken in one hand and Sasuke in the other. "Now please, get off the counter." She looked over at the other three, "All of you."

She jumped in surprise, nearly dropping the raw meat in her hand, and _actually_ dropping Sasuke who snarled as he plummeted like a stone to the kitchen linoleum, when Itachi brushed by her, his silky fur rubbing against her arm. Sakura opened her mouth to comment on how he seemed fine with initiating touches when he'd argued against her scratching under his chin earlier, but the miniscule narrowing of Itachi's eyes at the gesture made her think better of her decision and say nothing.

It didn't stop her from wondering just why her usually calm and collected calculus tutor was behaving in such a strangely hot-and-cold manner.

'_This isn't normal…or is it the kitty instinct Naruto was talking about?_'

Brows coming together in consideration, she turned back to the frying pan and the chore of making dinner for herself and five cats.

=*~*~*=

"I think you guys are small enough to sleep in here."

It was a decidedly bare room, with only a bed, desk, and chair for furniture. Sasuke was pretty certain this was the smallest of the Haruno guest bedrooms, as well as the one farthest from Sakura's own, but from the stiff line of her shoulders, he could tell she didn't want an argument.

'_You're setting yourself up for disappointment if you think we're staying here,_' he thought with a nonchalant flick of his ear. '_But, suit yourself._' If Sakura wanted to be in denial, that was her issue.

Even if Sakura's conscious mind didn't know it yet, her unconscious instincts were well aware of her friends' affections, and it showed. She was growing skittish around them; it had been pretty obvious during dinner and afterwards.

'_But,_' Sasuke allowed himself a smirk that Sakura couldn't see from above him, '_She'll get over it._'

It was their combined mission to get Sakura to relax, first and foremost, before getting into…other things.

"Do you need anything?"

Sasuke stepped meaningfully on his cousin's tail when Shisui opened his mouth, silencing the older male as Naruto reassured their mutual, rosy-headed friend that they would be just fine.

"Okay, goodnight guys."

"Night, Sakura-chan!"

They converged on the bed as soon as the sound of Sakura's footsteps disappeared around the corner.

"Sakura-san is wary of us. At least on a subconscious level."

Naruto's tail flicked from side to side, a sure sign that the blond was agitated, as he focused on Itachi.

"I know you're concerned, dobe." Sasuke said before Naruto could speak up. "We all are." The dark-furred kitten sighed when the blond's tail kept flicking. "We'll give Sakura a chance to relax. Waiting until she falls asleep should be long enough."

"Teme…" the blond growled, hackles rising.

"Be reasonable, Naruto," Kakashi's voice cut through the pending argument. "You know what Sakura is like. If the situation grows too awkward for her, she will turn shy and try to avoid us. The best way to snap her out of her awkwardness is to shock desensitize her to us being cats. She'll be most relaxed at night.

"Sakura-chan's better than that," Naruto muttered, a touch sulkily, but he conceded anyway, settling down with the others to wait.

In Naruto's mind, midnight came too soon, and the five of them slipped out of their bedroom like stealthy shadows, to pad on silent paws up to Sakura's bedroom on the third floor.

Everything seemed especially _big_ now that they were smaller, but thanks to excellent feline night vision, it took them very little time to navigate the dark halls of the Haruno residence to Sakura's room. Her door presented a slightly larger challenge; it was shut.

But it was the work of only a quarter of an hour for the five of them to jimmy the door loose, and only a quarter of a second to slip into her room.

It was surprisingly chilly inside, the heating vent seemed faulty and Naruto found his fur fluffing up instinctively to keep out the cold. But the darkness was less oppressive in Sakura's bedroom than it was out in the hall. The faint, golden glow of a nightlight filled the corner of her bedroom, by the bookshelves that lined one wall. They mirrored the dresser and vanity on the other side of the room. The desk was squeezed in between the bookshelves and the door, and the bed was sandwiched between two large windows, one of which had a wooden chest pushed up underneath it as a makeshift window seat.

The sleeping girl shivered minutely, curled up in fetal position on her side under the covers.

With a sympathetic meow, Naruto leapt up to the bed, quickly pressing his warm, furry body against Sakura's stomach. The other four followed suit, until Sakura was covered by a secondary blanket of kitten, Kakashi draped over her hip, Shisui and Itachi sharing the space at Sakura's back, and Sasuke next to Naruto.

Slowly, their body heat seeped into her through the layers of her coverlet, and the girl relaxed, uncurling from her previous position to lie on her back. The boys adjusted themselves so that Itachi and Sasuke were curled up, pressed to Sakura's sides, Naruto, Kakashi, and Shisui draping themselves across Sakura's legs and torso, relaxing sleepily in their shared body head. Beneath them, Sakura sighed, the sound one of pleasured sleepiness, and the six of them succumbed to darkness.

=*~*~*=

It was deliciously warm for late autumn, and Sakura was sorry to wake up. She couldn't remember the last time her bedroom, with its defective heater (she was so telling her mother about it, first chance she got after her parents got back from their conference tours), had been so cozy. Waking up was the last thing she wanted to do; the heat all over her body had loosened too-tense muscles overnight, and she felt boneless. Too relaxed to move.

In that halfway state between sleeping and wakefulness, Sakura let herself drift, her mind wandering from one strange thought to another reluctant to wake. Considering she had a week of break ahead of her, she felt she ought to be allowed to sleep in a little.

But she'd spent too many weeks waking up early for her body to let her sleep in too late.

With a reluctant groan, she shifted under weight that readjusted itself as she moved…

'_Weight?_'

Uncertainty suddenly flooding her mind, Sakura opened her eyes, the cream-hue of her ceiling the first thing she saw.

Nothing seemed particularly out of place, but the warmth she had felt while still halfway asleep persisted, and Sakura knew her room better than that. It was never this warm during late autumn.

The weight on her body that she had grown accustomed to overnight shifted again.

Eye widening, Sakura propped herself up on her elbows.

Five pairs of feline eyes stared back at her, expressions ranging from Kakashi's clear amusement to Sasuke's obvious irritation at being woken up. But one thing about them was the same. They were, all five of them, cats. And they were all invading her bedspace like they belonged there.

A shriek lodged in Sakura's throat.

"What the _HELL?!_'

=*~*~*=

"That was interesting," Shisui remarked a while later.

Sakura had chased the five of them out of her room with a pillow, her face flaming a furious crimson red as she attempted to bat the quintet from her bedroom.

The door that had slammed behind them rattled with the echo of shrieked epithets as Sakura vented her startled feelings, punctured by the slam of her bathroom door, then a persistent thumping as she rummaged through her drawers for clothing.

Outside, the five kittens waited with an air of exaggerated patience as the solitary girl of the house started her morning in a thunderous temper.

"Those…those _idiots!_" Sakura snarled as she violently tried to remake her bed. "I've never let them be so casual in my room! I mean, yeah, Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun have sat on my bed before, but _sleep with me?_" Her face flamed as she realized how the words leaving her mouth sounded.

"I can't believe them!" she continued when her cheeks weren't quite so red. "I'm not a pillow or something! What were they thinking?" Wrinkling her nose, she flopped, fully dressed in a cute t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and a maroon sweatshirt, facedown onto her bed. "Maybe this is kitty instinct too…but…but…" Sakura rolled onto her back, "Why me?"

But she had no answer for that, and she could see through the crack at the bottom of her door that her friends were still waiting patiently outside, so she made an irritated face and flung open the door. "You-!"

Five pairs of eyes, two dark, one crimson, one blue, and one mismatched, stared up at her out of serene, kitty faces that were too adorable for words. They stared at her, and she stared back at them, for a long minute and then…

"Argh! That was such a cruel way to use your new cuteness!" Sakura accused as she felt herself relenting. They really were too cute to stay angry at for long, and the pleased series of purrs she heard only confirmed her suspicion that they'd done such a thing on purpose. "But we are going to be dealing with your guys' weird compulsions starting today, okay?" Sakura glanced up at the hall clock, "Right after we call Tsunade-baachan. It should be daytime in Tahiti by now…"

TBC

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Ehehehe...not as much fluff in this chapter, but next chapter there'll be more. I just need to set up the stage a little better ^^;

Please be kind and feed the muse, she likes cookies and reviews ^^

Aria, out


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